1999 GMC Jimmy Reviews - Page 8 of 11

1999 GMC Jimmy SLT 4.3 from North America

Summary:

Great Car... if you don't mind the gas prices!

Faults:

I have had few problems with my Jimmy. I love it to death. Considering it has 150000 miles on it, it has a few little issues, but nothing major. I have had to replace the AC condenser and tires. That is all. It is 4WD so the gas mileage is not great, but I love it and cannot get rid of it.

1999 GMC Jimmy SLT 4.3 litre 6 cylinder from North America

Summary:

Do no buy a Jimmy unless you are a mechanic and have nothing better to do than fix you vehicle other

Faults:

2000 Driver's side seat heater stopped working: Dealer unable to fix after 3 attempts. Have given up on this feature.

2002 Entire front end fried: Wheel bearings and ball joints on both sides. ~$2500. Its not like I take the vehicle to monster truck rallies or abuse it in any way.

2003 Transmission seal blew out: Part cost $3. Labour ~$600. Transmission mechanic reported that he has seen many 1999 GM vehicles with this problem. Apparently GM decided to use an aluminum seal to save money. The new part is Teflon.

2004 Cooling system failure: Fitting on engine cracked. Took 2 days for dealer to find a new part. ~$800.

2004 Power mirrors stop working: Fortunately they can be manually adjusted. Have given up on this feature.

2005 Transmission oil cooling lines ruptured: ~$600.

2005 Engine leaks oil: About 1 liter every 6 weeks. Dealer wants $700 to repair. Seeing as that will buy about 150 bottles of oil it has not been repaired.

2006 Cooling system failure: Seal inside engine gave way. Dealer wants ~$1800 to fix. The part is about $18, but the engine needs to be pretty much disassembled to change it. 2 bottles of stop-leak seems to have fixed it - though it needs anti-freeze from time to time.

2006 Ignition key cannot be removed: God knows what this will cost so I decided to just lock the car leaving the key in the ignition and use a spare key. GM has thought of this and the car drains the battery overnight and cannot be started the next day. Installed a power cut off switch on the battery.

General Comments:

In the beginning the Jimmy was great. It is powerful and comfortable. However over time it has shown itself to be poorly engineered and quite simply costs too much to own.

The engineers at GM have designed in luxury features like self-dimming mirrors and cut corners on things like transmission and cooling system seals. They clearly value flashy features, but do not seem to have a clue about reliability. Other manufacturers have been putting cooling systems on motors for a hundred years – but GMC is still working on the problem.

I have owned a number of GM vehicles in the past and have been pleased, but genuinely feel ripped off by this one. It’s a lemon. The engineers at GMC can pat themselves on the back for shaving a few pennies off the cost of vehicles by putting in cheap transmission seals, cheap cooling system seals, flimsy wheel bearings and such - but they have lost a loyal customer. I will never by a GM product again.

1999 GMC Jimmy from North America

Summary:

Faults:

Both the driver and passenger reclining levers have broken off on numerous occasions.

Alternator, air-conditioning, front brakes, and rear brakes, all went out (individually) in a one month period.

Car has had a LOUD screeching coming from the rear passenger tire for almost a year. I have had it in 4 times and the repairs have never kept it away more than a week. I am taking it in next week to a specialist. I was actually turned away from two additional mechanics who said they couldn't diagnose the problem.

Went without heat for most of the winter last year. Took two times to get it fixed.

General Comments:

I like this car's appearance and it's handling, especially in winter. But overall, I wish I leased something until I could have afforded another Grand Cherokee. The current re-sale on my Jimmy is less than I still owe on it, so I am going to drive this thing until it dies. Hopefully that is not soon!